[2015102] This Is Not A Love Song
Greg Fleet, Shane Adamczak, Tegan Mulvaney, Mick Moriarty [music] @ Tuxedo Cat – Perske Pavilion
8:30pm, Mon 2 Mar 2015
I’ve always maintained that Greg Fleet can write, but his solo standup shows have mostly been a bit patchy for me. But a piece of theatre, that has to be fleshed out and delivered as a team by a cast of differing viewpoints? That would have be ensure more consistent & balanced writing, right?
But early signs did not look good. Fleet acts as a narrator, looking back in time at a defining relationship between his younger self (Jimmy, played by Shane Adamczak) and Sophie (Tegan Mulvaney, who also directs, and sounded – in voice and text – like my Significant Other). Initially, there’s some awkward elements of Fleet’s standup on display, and the interactions between Jimmy and Sophie are stiff; there’s still some great moments (the pawing through of record collections elicits a joyful familiarity), but something still feels… not quite right.
The moment where Fleet’s narrative invades his memory – when Sophie can actually see his future self in her present – is where the show starts to truly shine. At that stage, the conflict (and love) between all three characters comes alive, and the rest of the performance is a delight.
The short excerpts of period pop songs – set to Mick Moriarty’s live guitar – were performed well by the cast… even with Fleet’s gruff vocals. Having said that, most of the snippets are short enough not to matter, meaning that the occasional off-note (and odd harmonies) didn’t impact the performance. There were some really neat bits, however: the vocal lines in Mr. Blue Sky were pretty cool.
After a bit of a clunky start, This Is Not A Love Song grew into a pearler of a relationship breakdown memoir. I was prompted by a lot of familiar moments of my own relationships akin to Jimmy & Sophie’s, leading to a personal connection to the play; if only the front end had been stronger, this would have been unmissable.
(102) This Is Not A Love Song: Eerily identifiable semi-musical relationship destruction memoir(?). Second half superb. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 2, 2015